Hack for M-Network Super Challenge Football

[bigfriendly]

Hello everybody,

 

M-Network Super Challenge Football for the 2600 was one of my favorite sports games of all time. I always enjoyed just how simple and entertaining the game was back in the day. It's funny because the football games available today are light years ahead of anything from back then but they are just so darned complicated. I kind of miss the simplicity of just being able to flip the switch on and play the game. Now, I know zero about doing a hack for one of these old games but I am curious which is why I'm here posting. If I educated myself and learned how to modify the code for this classic game how difficult would adding the following options sound to you hacking experts out there?

 

1. Adding the ability to punt the ball and to kick field goals? Maybe you could have a basic meter that moves faster based on the distance of the field goal. Let's also ditch the ability of the defensive player to run out of the edge of the screen and come out on the other side. We called this "around the world" when we played the game.

 

2. Incorporating basic statistics for the game. rush yards, pass yards etc.

 

3. Making the hack playable on the internet with the ability to form leagues with statistics and stuff like that.

 

4. Finally, if you actually wanted to burn your updated version onto a ROM chip and make copies what kind of cost are you looking at? Are collectors/fans even interested in purchasing hacks of old games?

 

Thanks

Scott

[Nukey Shay]

1. Adding the ability to punt the ball and to kick field goals? Maybe you could have a basic meter that moves faster based on the distance of the field goal.

Not so difficult if you've got romspace and at least 1 bit of ram. Basically, the program could be hacked to ignore the regular routines should the state of that ram bit is set...and execute a custom routine instead. The first step, however, would be reverse-engineering the code to know exactly where to "break out" of the regular game...a process which some find to be more difficult than designing a new game from scratch. It really depends on what you are used to, I guess. I've got an uncommented disassembly that I used to make a Supercharger-compatable version that you can start with, if you want it.

 

 

Let's also ditch the ability of the defensive player to run out of the edge of the screen and come out on the other side. We called this "around the world" when we played the game.

That was just an easy workaround that Mattel used. Otherwise, an exception would need to be coded into the game to reset the player if either boundry is crossed. Exceptions in the code need time to execute.

 

 

2. Incorporating basic statistics for the game. rush yards, pass yards etc.

Not enough native ram. The game could be hacked to implement added ram, tho...which goes back to the first point - it's probably easier to remake a game with added ram in mind rather than try to add some to an existing game that used none.

 

 

3. Making the hack playable on the internet with the ability to form leagues with statistics and stuff like that.

AFAIK, "netplay" is still unworkable for the 2600 platform. The hardware itself would need to support it...this goes beyond the capability of a program.

 

 

4. Finally, if you actually wanted to burn your updated version onto a ROM chip and make copies what kind of cost are you looking at?

That would depend on a number of things...whether you are doing all the work yourself, how much interest in the project there is, and how many units are actually sold to absorb the cost of production.

 

 

Are collectors/fans even interested in purchasing hacks of old games?

Depends on the hack, I'd say. Some made a decade ago are still being sold.

[bigfriendly]

1. Adding the ability to punt the ball and to kick field goals? Maybe you could have a basic meter that moves faster based on the distance of the field goal.

Not so difficult if you've got romspace and at least 1 bit of ram. Basically, the program could be hacked to ignore the regular routines should the state of that ram bit is set...and execute a custom routine instead. The first step, however, would be reverse-engineering the code to know exactly where to "break out" of the regular game...a process which some find to be more difficult than designing a new game from scratch. It really depends on what you are used to, I guess. I've got an uncommented disassembly that I used to make a Supercharger-compatable version that you can start with, if you want it.

 

 

Let's also ditch the ability of the defensive player to run out of the edge of the screen and come out on the other side. We called this "around the world" when we played the game.

That was just an easy workaround that Mattel used. Otherwise, an exception would need to be coded into the game to reset the player if either boundry is crossed. Exceptions in the code need time to execute.

 

 

2. Incorporating basic statistics for the game. rush yards, pass yards etc.

Not enough native ram. The game could be hacked to implement added ram, tho...which goes back to the first point - it's probably easier to remake a game with added ram in mind rather than try to add some to an existing game that used none.

 

 

3. Making the hack playable on the internet with the ability to form leagues with statistics and stuff like that.

AFAIK, "netplay" is still unworkable for the 2600 platform. The hardware itself would need to support it...this goes beyond the capability of a program.

 

 

4. Finally, if you actually wanted to burn your updated version onto a ROM chip and make copies what kind of cost are you looking at?

That would depend on a number of things...whether you are doing all the work yourself, how much interest in the project there is, and how many units are actually sold to absorb the cost of production.

 

 

Are collectors/fans even interested in purchasing hacks of old games?

Depends on the hack, I'd say. Some made a decade ago are still being sold.

 

Nukey,

 

Thanks for the detailed answer I appreciate it. Based on the answers you gave me it sounds like if you wanted to add the options that I talked about then you would be better off just writing the code and making a whole new game. Would you agree??? If you don't mind I have few more questions for ya.

 

1. If your remaking the game from scratch could you use any of the code from the original so it would look and sound the same as the original?

 

2. If you make a brand new game does that change the ability to play online?

 

3. If your totally new and want to learn what are some good books, resources for learning how to write code to make Atari 2600 games?

 

Sorry if these are dumb questions but I really am curious.

 

Thanks again

Scott:)

[Nukey Shay]

1) There are many games that borrow techniques (or even entire routines) from other games. The most-common example would probably be 6-digit sprite display or a sprite repositioning subroutine. Borrowing is not limited to what the display kernel needs, tho...for example, the 8-bit port of Space Shuttle borrowed heavily from the original 2600 game.

 

 

2) As mentioned before, this is less relevant to creating a new game...but creating new hardware (or a new emulator) to add the capability. AFAIK, what makes this so difficult for the 2600 is that it has no operating system of it's own to make linking 2 machines together easy to accomplish. MAGE was the only emulator that claimed** to have the ability, and that emulator has disappeared completely.

 

** When I tried MAGE a decade ago, it prompted that a required .dll file was missing (which of course had to be purchased from the homesite)...makes the whole thing sound like a scam IMO.

 

 

3) Anything that you can study about or program in 6502 assembly. Some prefer to experiment with bBasic (knowing that they can imbed assembly code later as they become more comfortable with programming in general). For designing your own kernel, tho...you pretty much have to start at the bottom floor - chapter one of Andrew's tutorials. Working up to writing your first "Hello World"-type display program, and adding to that as you learn more.

bBasic's upcoming additions promise to make creation of complex games much easier, however.